Optics degree for single XM-L light build

[300winmag]

No lights under the camera. If you look at my previous build all im going to do is cut that saddle off and put 2 lights at 4'' apart. I will see if I can draw what I mean. Im on my phone so bear with me lol

 

[3D diver]

So...kinda like this?

These are DRIS 1000 lumen lights with 60 degree holographic diffusers added.

 

[300winmag]

3D Diver, yup same idea.
Apparently photobucket is not android friendly
Here is what I'm talking about...

The lights would be about 4" apart I'm guessing... would still play around to get the best coverage of course.
3D diver how is the coverage on those lights? you got a video running all 4 lights?

---------- Post added January 6th, 2013 at 10:09 PM ----------

Holy cow! Each one of those has 3 C cells in them! How much does that weigh?

 

[3D diver]

You can read all about it here:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/gopro-video/425784-my-gopro-3d-setup.html

The DRIS lights have a fairly narrow beam so a lot of my thread is my experiments with diffusers. I'm now using a 60 degree holographic diffuser in each light (see post 69).

I started with a pair of lights and was pretty happy with the coverage, but there was some shadowing when I got real close so recently added the second, lower, pair of lights.

It's about 10lbs in the air but with the floats it's just about neutral in the water---see post 114 for the float DIY.

Here's the only video I've shot, so far, with all four lights:

[video=youtube_share;cD7NAtFifiM]http://youtu.be/cD7NAtFifiM[/video]

 

[300winmag]

Hmmm I've been told by a few people to go with no optics, just the bare LED. It's called a "Mule" but some other people are saying that is too wide and to go with between 70° and 80° or it will cause back scatter in front of the camera. I have only dove with narrow-ish beam lights and they showed to back scatter in front of the camera. Does anybody have a video with a pure flood light that shows back scatter?

 

[3D diver]

Taking the reflector out does result in a very uniform light distribution, but the angle is limited by the distance from the led to the front of the light and the edges are very sharp. (I included that option in my thread somewhere.)

I dove my rig New Year's Eve and will have lots of back scatter to share when I get my video edited, not the best viz at all. May not finish til next weekend.

 

[300winmag]

I'm guessing my LED would be 3/4 to 1" away from the front of the light Sooo would it be better to have a mule then an 80° beam??
My lights are going to be around 12" to 16" away from the camera.

 

[3D diver]

If you're making the lights yourself I'd suggest getting the LEDs closer to the end and relying on their inherent spread (check their datasheet). Beyond that I'll punt and say get the widest optic you can and experiment with/without a reflector.

 

[havnmonkey]

I have one of the DRIS 1K shorty's on order now, and plan to use it as a video light if it works well... I read 3ddiver's thread on diffusers and it didn't strike me until last night that my diy SW aquarium build has LEDs with optics. There are now optics for XML emitters in various beam patterns and they're pretty cheap, about $1.50/ea in small quantities.

I use Rapid LED for all my aquarium lighting builds and these are the XML optics they stock. 60 degree and 80 degree beam. I have 60 degree on my XPG emitters and the pattern is uniform without a noticeable hot spot.

Just have to figure out how to open the bezel and get to the emitter in the 1k shorty.